Bern Kansas

Biography of Virgil A. Bird

Virgil A. Bird has long been one of the live business factors in the Town of Bern. He is a native of Northeastern Kansas and his people were among the pioneers of Doniphan County. Mr. Bird was born near Severance in Doniphan County September 3, 1869. His ancestors were New England people, and in that section his grandfather, Isaac Bird, spent his life. The Bird family came originally from England, and became Americans in Colonial days. George Bird, father of Virgil A., was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, in 1834, and is still living, at the age of eighty-three, in Denton, … Read more

Biography of Frank H. Curtis

Frank H. Curtis is a school man, superintendent of the city schools of Bern in Nemaha County and had been a factor in Kansas educational affairs for a number of years. He was born in Massac County, Illinois, July 28, 1874, but when five years of age went with his parents to Western Kansas and grew up in Trego County when that was a frontier section. Mr. Curtis is of Scotch-Irish ancestry and members of the family were pioneers in Kentucky. His father, Dr. D. B. Curtis, was born in Kentucky in 1815. He graduated from the Louisville Medical College … Read more

Biography of William W. Driggs, Jr.

William W. Driggs, Jr.,is a capable young newspaper man and is now editor of the Bern Gazette in Nemaha county. The Gazette is one of the live papers of that county, and was established in 1898 by M. E. Ford. The editor of the paper was born in Hannibal, Missouri, December 25, 1891. His father is William W. Driggs, Sr., and together they make the firm Driggs & Driggs, publishers of the Bern Gazette. The senior Driggs was born March 25, 1856, in Pennsylvania. At the age of fifteen he learned telegraphy and began working soon afterward as a railroad … Read more